Lizzie Borden Society Forum

Is it possible (I don't have much knowledge of the neighborhood at that time) for a culprit to have escaped the other direction from the Borden house? Could someone have gone over Lizzie's back fence at the opposite side of the Kelly's house on the Churchill side (he would have been hidden from the street by the barn), or to have cut through Churchill's back yard and continued through rest of the back yards in that direction?

Anything's possible.

Witnesses at the trial who were around in the neighborhood at that time saw no one. However, the woodcutter in the Crowe yard didn't see (forget if it was a reporter or a policeman) come over the fence & the fellow had to walk up to him.

It would have been harder to scale & go over the back fence behind the barn...there was a woodpile close to the Kelley side. Of course, there was also barbed wire strung along the top & bottom of the Borden fence.

What about the side back yard at Churchills?

From Galleries at lizzieandrewborden.com--

This image shows how close the side of the Churchill house was to the Borden's (I'd say this view is approx from the Borden's side door where Lizzie stood to say, "O Mrs Churchill, do come over...)

I believe that's the Borden barn immediately abutting to the right of the old well.



Here's a broader view...



Unfortunately, we don't seem to have photos of the rear. Rebello has a sketch of the yards. There were more back fences there.

So someone could have jumped the little side fence and gone through Churchill's back yard and then to the next back yard after that and eventually gotten to the next cross street without much notice.

I think if someone else did it, with all what was going on, anyone could have possibly gotten away and noone would have noticed. I mean , most people aren't looking out there windows looking for a murderer, you know. They aren't looking for something like that.

Those pictures sure do reflect how small the backyard was and how close the barn is.

The area around Second and Third Streets and Borden Street are covered in an essay by Mary Naugle in this new Hatchet issue. Also there are 2 maps in there of the neighborhood.
"The Second Street Sentinels" page 54.